Talk about voting with their feet…….
The urbane Mr Erik Solheim is a mediator. He is peacemaker at large. He is a man who does not take sides, and he will do anything for peace in Sri Lanka.
Now, wait a minute, did somebody say anything?

It is now suddenly discovered that Solheim is Balasingham's friend. What about that then? Everyone knew that, even from the body language, with G. L. Peiris leaning backward, and Balasingham leaning forward towards Solheim in the photographs. They were good friends. Body language is not supposed to lie. Balasingham and Solheim were very good friends indeed.

But this is a new Balasingham on the bloc. He is in fact called Baskaran - - and he is running for office in Norway. Tigers only run for office in Norway. In Sri Lanka, they take it for granted that they are the sole representatives of the Tamil people. Elections are superfluous, but in Norway there are other imperatives. All problems would have been solved for the urbane Mr Solheim who was running for office from the Social Left Party, if the Tiger friends such as Baskaran helped him with a few assault rifles.

Solheim must marvel at the efficiency with which such things are carried out generally by the Tigers. But, In Norway, Solheim has to be helped the old fashioned way. Baskaran on the other hand, being from a different party, is said to have helped himself. It is a simple matter. The voting machines have to be taken care of, and on the other hand, why bring assault rifles into the picture when a few ballpoint pens could do the job. Just scribble-dribble on the ballot.

Now, all this should ideally put a question mark over Mr Solheim’s credentials of being lily white, odourless, and truly independent in his role as mediator in the Sri Lankan peace process. If a left leaning politician and Liberal politician are in sympathy with pro Tiger parties at an election in Norway, it means, Solhiem knows on which side his thosai is filled.

He is not going to get much votes for himself or his friends in the Norwegian Tamil constituency, if he "sees things as they are'' back here in the North and the East, where the real thosai is cooking on the burner. And who says there is no democracy and a culture of universal franchise in the dust-baked, bullet-riddled North Eastern swathe of Sri Lanka? That's bullocks. Even Norwegian democracy is decided here, even as the thosai uncurls, and the landmine chicken is dished out.

The first export item of the operative state of Eelam (state I said not nation, but those more comfortable with the latter characterisation may imagine as they please) is democracy exported to Norway.

The Tigers defend to the death the right to be defended in Norway as the sponsor of the rights of endangered Tamils, and defend to the death the right not to have democracy in the North and the East in order that the same rights of the Tamils are defended back here. If that sounds too complicated, Solheim should know how that particular cookie crumbles, and it is better than you ask him. But be sure to stuff his thosai well, and get that lassi well salted before you go and see him.

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